Cheap Mozart - Cosi Fan Tutte / Gardiner, Roocroft, Gilfry, English Baroque Soloists (DVD) (Peter Mumford) Price

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Customer Reviews of Mozart - Cosi Fan Tutte / Gardiner, Roocroft, Gilfry, English Baroque Soloists

An inspired Cosi
There are several excellent productions of Cosi available on DVD. Because the opera can be interpreted in different ways (that's one of its joys), I don't think there's a "best production" out there. This one, though, is my personal favorite. It's conducted by John Eliot Gardiner who says of Cosi that no other Mozart opera has such an unmistakable sound, one he can only describe as "feminine." It's the opera I put on when I need to nourish the soul. The "Addio" quintet, followed by the "Soave sia il vento" trio is almost too much beauty to bear in so short a time. Heavenly Amadeus music, always with that tinge of indefinable sadness, just like life. <
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>This production has lush sets and costumes, sparkling conducting (on period instruments) and first-rate performances by the six ensemble players. I love how it shifts gears in Act II. Up until then it's all hilarity and fun. Then it stops you in your tracks as you realize Fiordiligi is truly in crisis. Amanda Roocroft communicates this both in her singing and her acting. You feel deeply for her. <
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>As the sisters, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, Roocroft and Rosa Mannion's voices blend perfectly; this is essential because they sing together throughout the opera. Rainer Trost is a perfect Mozart tenor - sweet-voiced and expressive. His moving interpretation of Ferrando's two arias "Un' aura amorosa" and "Tradito, schernito" goes straight to your heart. Rodney Gilfry is wonderfully arrogant as Guglielmo and his rich baritone voice is a treat for the ear. <
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>Finally, there are some great directorial choices - from the sisters fending off the "foreigners" with upended tables in the hilariously-staged "Alla bella Despinetta," to the ensemble dropping out of character as they begin the final chorus (an inspired choice since the audience knows it's false cheerfulness at that point anyway). <
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The rare thing - a PERFECT video
Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" has never been as ubiquitous in the operatic repertoire as Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, or Magic Flute, despite having perhaps the most beautiful score and the best libretto (by da Ponte). Ostensibly, the story is simple: two sisters (Fiordiligi and Dorabella) are engaged to two young men (Ferrando and Guglielmo). The men, egged on by a sinister Don Alfonso, decide to "test" their sweethearts' love by disguising themselves as soldiers and switching partners. The women do not pass this love-test, and thus the title of the opera: Cosi fan tutte (all women are like that). But this summary of the plot only scratches the tip of the iceburg that is Cosi fan tutte. <
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>In the 19th century the opera was decried as wicked, because it dared put forth the idea of "free love" way before the 1960s. It stubbornly refused to be traditionally romantic. It's a comedy that becomes profoundly uncomfortable to watch, as the sunny frivolous, fake "romances" between the main characters turns into something entirely ambiguous and mysterious, something no one can explain, not even da Ponte or Mozart. The ending has no real sense of resolution, and thus is been the bane of stage directors. How does one end an opera that has no real ending? The moral and emotional ambiguity of Cosi fan tutte, however, makes it perhaps Mozart's richest and deepest work. I think the score is his most beautiful. The da Ponte libretto is by turns biting, funny, romantic, cynical, cruel, and humane. A performance that can express all the complexity of this work is rare, so that's why it's so special when it does happen, as it does here in this wonderful video. <
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>John Eliot Gardiner is a conductor of the HIP movement, meaning he believes in using period-style instruments, tuning, and singing practices. The appogiaturas that mid-20th century German conductors so insistently stamped out are restored, as is vocal embellishments of the arias. The HIP movement was controversial when it first started; now most "unHIP" performances have incorporated some HIP practices, such as a the proper restoration of appogiaturas. (Although if one listens to the 1930s broadcasts and early recordings of Mozart one can hear the appogiaturas -- why they were so ruthlessly erased by mid-20th century conductors has always been a minor mystery to me. It mostly hinged on a few ambiguous letters Mozart wrote, that suggested he wanted his arias sung come scritto. Nowadays people acknowledge that those one or two letters were probably not meant to be taken literally.) <
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>The production of Cosi fan tutte is proof that "traditional" does not equal stodgy. The cute (perhaps too cute) beginning has Don Alfonso (Claudio Nicolai), Guglielmo (Rodney Gilfry), and Ferrando (Rainer Trost) walking down the aisles of the Theatre du Chatalet and onstage. The men are in period-style costumes, and the stage is filled with white curtains. As the men end their discussion about the constancy of women, the curtains part and we are in a sunny, pretty Meditteranean garden, with a terra-cotta floor. Fiordiligi is playing with her clothes, suggesting her youth. The sets remain simple throughout the opera, but they always suggest a happy, sunny place, that contrasts more and more with the emotional complexity of the story as the opera progresses. <
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>The main idea of Act 1 is to emphasize the immaturity of the lovers. The sisters are barely distinguishable from each other, both in costumes, voice, and personality. Gardiner explains in his notes that although it's been traditional to cast Fiordiligi as a soprano and Dorabella as a mezzo to contrast and differentiate the sisters, the original Fiordiligi and Dorabella were singers very similar in range and type. Besides, the main concept in this production is that Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Guglielmo, and Ferrando are all very immature and juvenile, with very little sense of self. (Reminiscent of the lovers in Midsummer's Night Dream.) They rhapsodize about love without any idea of what love actually is. Throughout the performance, things seem light and happy and giggly, and it only gradually creeps up on you that this is no longer funny, that the emotions are real, and that the silly, indistinguishable foursome have become complex individuals, with emotions that can't be erased by Don Alfonso and Despina's almost cruel prattle at the opera's conclusion. <
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>Gardiner assembled a young, good-looking cast, that fit into the concept of the immaturity and inexperience of the lovers. Don Alfonso is an elderly gentleman, and the fact that he's cruelly meddling in the emotional and sexual lives of these young people suggests his need to compensate for his own lack of emotional depth. Amanda Roocroft and Rosa Mannion have voices that are lighter than usual for this opera. Roocroft can't quite negotiate the fiendishly difficult "Come scoglio" and "Per pieta" as well as some Fiordiligis I've heard (most recently Dorothea Roschmann in the excellent, if very different video from Berlin), but I love her light, bright, youthful sounding voice, as well as Rosa Mannion's. If you have an allergy to fast vibratos than you might take issue with Roocroft and Mannion, but I don't. The men (Rodney Gilfry and Rainer Trost) are more well-known than the women, and they sing marvellously. "Il core vi dono" and "Fra gli amplessi" (the two sublime duets between the "switched" lovers in the second act) have the requisite beauty and poignancy. The many ensemble pieces demonstrate how well all the performers are able to blend their voices into a harmonious, beautiful whole. Despina (Eirian James) is an energetic and spunky Despina, and she suggests that her cruel shenanigans are borne out of a servant's resentment. Like Don Alfonso, she always remains slightly detatched from the lovers, as if she's watching a baseball game. <
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>At the end of the opera, Mozart's happy C-major chord plays, and the characters are all smiling, except Fiordiligi is still holding onto Ferrando's hand, and Dorabella and Guglielmo are holding hands as well. Finally Fiordiligi holds hands with Guglielmo, and the lovers are all lined up, holding hands. They're supposed to go back to their original lovers, but they can't break the bonds that they formed with their "fake" lovers either. All of them are smiling. What are they smiling about? Their newfound love? Or relief that the game is over? A perfectly ambiguous ending to this opera.